"The new, lower feverEveryone knows that the normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Everyone, says the Los Angeles Times, is wrong. For most adults, the natural body temperature is actually half a degree cooler—98.1 degrees. How did the wrong temperature get established as the standard? Back in the mid-19th century, German doctor Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich recorded the body temperatures of 25,000 people with his mercury thermometer, which at the time was still a newfangled instrument. Through painstaking measurements and tedious math (he had to average about a million readings by hand), Wunderlich came up with the now-familiar average of 98.6 degrees. But more recent studies found that body temperature is flexible—slightly higher in women than in men, lower in whites than in blacks, higher in children than in adults, and lower in senior citizens—but generally lower than 98.6. This left scientists puzzled as to how Wunderlich came up with that number. When they examined his only thermometer, they found it to be calibrated wrongly. All of his readings were false."

mine has always been around 97.5. i start to feel feverish around 98.7. but the stupid school nurses never believed me. unless you had 100 on the dot or higher no excesses go back to class!

i hated them so much! they caused me much pain! i got fevers alot as a child, 2-4 a year around 101-103 and 1-3 headaches a week, after jr high my mom started giving me Tylenol to take to school for my headaches and notes to give to the nurses to let me call her if i was sick because the nurses never believed me. they were so close minded. like i was lying cuz it wasn't written in a book or something.

any doctors on here care to give any "nonprofessional" or "non doctor/patient" opinions on this one?